We all know face-to-face (f2f) and virtual meetings (over Skype for example). An entirely new and very innovative notion in knowledge management is the c2c meeting. In order to understand how this works one has to consider that normally a f2f meeting has three stages: (1) a number of sleepy people sitting around a table; (2) a coffee break during which the knowledge is exchanged; and (3) another around the table session during which the date for the next meeting is set.
In a c2c meeting the coffee machine is replaced by a terrace located about 20km from the homes of the participants. The first stage is replaced by a cycling trip from the homes to the terrace. By the time the participants turn up at the terrace, they are top fit and fully awake. The knowledge exchange at the terrace will therefore be very effective. The third stage of a c2c meeting might seem redundant. It isn't, especially when you order champignons in bierbeslag during stage two. Stage three, therefore, aims at reducing the calory level to neutral.
Lilia and I tried the c2c setup. Lilia had selected a very sporty outfit that went together well with her new bicycle and I had prepared by programming a scenic route on my new GPS. The only point on the agenda, except smalltalk, was discussing the structure of a paper on Community Informatics. The success of this empirical investigation into the c2c format can therefore be objectively measured: if the paper is accepted the format is effective.
Just in case you are wondering a c2c meeting is a cycle-to-cycle meeting. The minutes of the first ever c2c meeting are below :-). Try it!
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